PlayStation network back online; Hackers' bomb threat diverts jet

Latest update: Sony says the Playstation network is back online after briefly being inaccessible following a denial of service attack.
Sony however has postponed the scheduled regular maintenance.

In its latest statement the company said, “The PlayStation Network and Sony Entertainment Network are back online and people can now enjoy the services on their PlayStation devices.”

It once again reiterated that the attack only resulted in making the service inaccessible while there was no intrusion into the servers.

Earlier, Sony Corp said on Sunday its PlayStation Network was taken down by a denial of service-style attack and the FBI was investigating the diversion of a flight carrying a top Sony executive amid reports of a claim that explosives were on board.

Several hours after the outage, servers on Playstation network and Sony Online Entertainment (SOE) continued to remain offline.

 “Like other major networks around the world, the PlayStation Network and Sony Entertainment Network have been impacted by an attempt to overwhelm our network with artificially high traffic.

“Although this has impacted your ability to access our network and enjoy our services, no personal information has been accessed.

“We will continue to work towards fixing this issue and hope to have our services up and running as soon as possible.

We regret any inconvenience this may have caused,” said a statement posted on the Playstation A plane carrying Sony Online Entertainment President John Smedley was diverted on Sunday, Smedley said in a post on microblogging site Twitter.

Lizard Squad said later on their Twitter handle that they had planted the ISIS flag on Sony's servers.

Lizard Squad also sent a message through its Twitter account to American Airlines saying Smedley's flight had explosives on board, according to a report by USA Today. The group also used Twitter to claim credit for the network attack, the newspaper said.

USA Today reported that the Dallas/Fort Worth flight to San Diego was diverted and landed safely in Phoenix.

A PlayStation spokeswoman in the United States said the diverted flight was being handled by the FBI and had no comment. An FBI spokesman had no immediate comment.

Sony is hoping its PlayStation network, with 52 million active users, can serve as a centrepiece of its plans to rebuild its business after years of losses in its flagship electronics operations.

The network business has been hit by attacks before, with a security breach in 2011 dealing a major blow to plans at the time for a looser network designed to allow for the connection of a range of Sony devices.

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